The first pilot tests for the KnowledgeBadge “Teaching Accessibly” were conducted at the end of November, including at the University of Siegen. The Chair of Prof. Dr. Claudia Müller (Information Systems, especially IT for the Aging Society) is an associate partner in the Shuffle project. This project developed a free online course on this topic, which provides foundational information about the diversity of user needs, the creation of accessible documents, and specific requirements in the higher education context. The course is freely accessible online for everyone.
Sven Bittenbinder, a research associate at Claudia Müller’s chair, is a member of the organizational team for the KnowledgeBadge tests and brought the examination to Siegen. He expressed his excitement about the successful tests: “The idea of creating a compact learning course for educators that offers foundational understanding and practical examples for direct application […] moves us and the University of Siegen further toward equal opportunities and inclusion!” The practical focus of the course and the exam supports the university’s efforts in this direction.
Two additional members of the Chair of Information Systems, especially IT for the Aging Society, Sandra Butzek and Claudius Clüver, promptly registered for the first pilot tests. They have now demonstrated their knowledge of inclusion and accessibility by earning the KnowledgeBadge “Teaching Accessibly.”
“The course is very manageable to complete alongside other commitments within 2-4 weeks,” Claudius Clüver explained. “For those who prefer to delve deeper into the details, we are considering offering an in-person course in the future. I’d be thrilled if we could inspire more people to engage with the topic of accessibility,” added Sven Bittenbinder.
Further information can be found at the following links:
Chair of Information Systems, especially IT for the Aging Society, University of Siegen: italg.wineme.uni-siegen.de
Free online course “Teaching Accessibly”: hdm-stuttgart.de
IAAP-D-A-CH information on the KnowledgeBadge and exam dates: iaap-dach.org
In the picture (from left to right): Sven Bittenbinder, Claudius Clüver, Sandra Butzek
On November 20, 2024, the second symposium on networking in regional healthcare took place in the Kulturhaus LŸZ in Siegen under the title “Offers that arrive”. The event was organized by the University of Siegen in cooperation with the Siegerland health region, the Siegen-Wittgenstein district, the Dementia Care Management network, the Alzheimer Gesellschaft Siegen-Wittgenstein e.V., the Caritasverband Siegen-Wittgenstein e.V. and the regional office for ageing, care and dementia. The aim was once again to network important players in regional healthcare in order to improve healthcare in the region.
Dennis Kirschsieper received the award in Hamburg.
Our chair staff members Tanja Aal and Dennis Kirschsieper from the Collaborative Research Center “Media of Cooperation” at the University of Siegen have been awarded for a joint research project with citizens. The researchers, led by socio-informatics specialist Tanja Aal, won second place in the “Knowledge of the Many – Research Award for Citizen Science”.
Together with citizens in Switzerland, researchers from the University of Siegen developed a help platform for older people. To start, the team conducted interviews with elderly people in a rural community near Zurich, as well as with caregivers, to identify needs and requirements. Based on the findings, a prototype of a community platform was developed, aiming to facilitate the search and offer of help in a low-barrier way. Older individuals were actively involved as co-researchers throughout the entire process and were equally integrated. The team has now been recognized for this form of “Citizen Science” (collaborative research with citizens): The researchers, led by Siegen-based socio-informatics specialist Tanja Aal, won second place in the “Knowledge of the Many – Research Award for Citizen Science” and received a prize of 10,000 euros.
“Of course, we are very pleased with this recognition of our work. Actively involving citizens in research is an important concern for us. Technologies like our help platform only work in practice if they are accepted by future users and are precisely tailored to their needs,” says Tanja Aal. Citizen science in qualitative social research is “very close to people” and therefore places special demands on scientists: “Processes have to be negotiated together again and again, which requires sensitivity and a high degree of self-reflection. At the same time, this type of research is very social and enriching.”
The development of the help platform for older people was carried out as part of a subproject at the Collaborative Research Center “Media of Cooperation” at the University of Siegen, under the direction of Prof. Dr. Claudia Müller. Together with Dennis Kirschsieper, Prof. Müller and Tanja Aal are investigating cooperative and practice-based design approaches for sociotechnical infrastructures for aging societies. The platform, which emerged from the Swiss citizen science project, has since been further developed in Germany and is soon to enter its trial phase as a real platform. The “Knowledge of the Many – Research Award for Citizen Science” was presented at the “Forum Citizen Science” conference in Hamburg. The award winners were selected by a jury of interdisciplinary professors. First place went to biologist Julia von Gönner from Friedrich Schiller University in Jena for a citizen science project on stream water quality. Third place was awarded to historian Prof. Dr. Boris Dreyer from FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg for a book project about an ancient Roman boat from the 1st century.
Background:
The “Knowledge of the Many – Research Award for Citizen Science,” first announced in 2023, honors scientists for outstanding scientific achievements in the application of citizen science. The award is endowed with prize money of 20,000 euros for first place, 10,000 euros for second place, and 5,000 euros for third place. The prize money enables the award winners to further expand their activities in the field of citizen science. The award is presented by the organization “Science in Dialogue” and the Museum of Natural History Berlin, and is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The award will be presented again in 2025.
Contact:
Tanja Aal (Collaborative Research Center Media of Cooperation)
Email: tanja.ertl@uni-siegen.de
Tel.: +49 271 740 4036
Dennis Kirschsieper, Prof. Dr. Claudia Müller, and Tanja Aal from the Collaborative Research Center “Media of Cooperation,” together with citizens in Switzerland, have developed a help platform – for which they have now been awarded.
(Photo: Katrin Staudt I KaWa Photography)
The “WERTE IT” project will be launched at the University of Siegen in December. It aims to help make workplaces in companies, organizations and administrations more inclusive. The Siegen project team is receiving funding of around 900,000 euros for the project
Four members of the chair “Business Informatics, in particular IT for the aging society”, of Prof. Dr. Claudia Müller, participated in the 17th Berlin Method Meeting (BMT) on July 29 and 30, 2022, where they presented the participatory research design anchored at the chair.
David Struzek, Richard Paluch, Dennis Kirschsieper, and Sven Bittenbinder explained the concept of “PRAXLABS” (https://praxlabs.de/) using four different projects as examples and contrasted the different levels of participation in the different settings. In addition, the researchers reported on common challenges in integrating different stakeholder groups and prepared the many findings in the form of a poster.
The Berlin Method Meeting consists of numerous research workshops and workshops. Richard Paluch and David Struzek presented their research in the research workshops “Qualitative Content Analysis” and “Participatory Research”. Richard Paluch discussed the “Development of a Reflective Instrument to Evaluate Robotic Systems for Nursing” in the “Qualitative Content Analysis” session. David Struzek presented “Development of socio-technical support systems for motivating and maintaining physical activity in public spaces ” in the “Participatory Research” event.
The Berlin Method Meeting has been imparting knowledge from the field of qualitative research and ethnography since 2005 (further information: https://berliner-methodentreffen.de/).
From the left: Richard Paluch, Dennis Kirschsieper, David Struzek and Sven Bittenbinder in front of their poster „Teilhabe durch Technik? Entwicklung von technischen Artefakten mit und für vulnerable Gruppen“
The project iDESkmu (“inclusive document management systems and enterprise content management systems in small and medium-sized enterprises, administrations and self-help associations”) will present the DMS sample workplace online at the Berufsbildungswerk (BBW) of the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (LWL) in Soest on 02.06.2022 from 10:00.
In the project “iDESkmu” researches and tests since 2019 different approaches to maintain and create barrier-free IT workplaces with a focus on blind and visually impaired people and document management systems.
In the consortium, the University of Siegen, Chair of “Business Informatics, in particular IT for the aging society” around Mrs. (Vertr.) Prof’in Dr. Claudia Müller, takes over, among other things, the practical research, consisting of requirement analyses, participatory design and conception methods as well as the evaluation of the results and their sustainability.
The DMS sample workstation is an outcome of the project, which will run until August 2022.
On December 7, 2021, the Service Office Inclusive University of Siegen, in cooperation with the Center for the Advancement of University Teaching, is organizing a project day on the topic of inclusion in line with the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which has been proclaimed as a day of remembrance by the United Nations.
Topic: How can digitality be designed to be inclusive and barrier-free in the future?
Sven Bittenbinder, research associate at the department of Information Systems, in especially IT for the aging society under the direction of Prof. Dr. Claudia Müller, will report on the research project iDESkmu (www.projekt-ideskmu.de).
In addition, there will be many other interesting and exciting presentations on the topic of inclusion and accessibility.
The event is an “open” event. So you can simply join in as you wish via Zoom (video conference).
Researchers at the University of Siegen together with actors from sports, dance, arts and the city of Siegen work to bring the joy of movement into the city with the use of digital applications on site.
How can we encourage more enjoyment of movement, especially in the city? And how can digital tools help – whether alone or with others, at home or in the office or outside? To answer these questions about sports and exercise in urban space, experts from the University of Siegen are collaborating with relevant local stakeholders. (more…)
Today, user-centered and participatory design methods have become indispensable in modern HCI research and user-centered development. Use of such methods can help us to gain realistic insights into current practices, co-produce sustainable concepts and solutions and understand how digital tools can be appropriated in a more sustainable way.
For this reason, the Chair of Information Systems, especially IT for the Ageing Society, is organizing an introduction to the topic of qualitative research on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2020 from 2 p.m. until 4 p.m.
We cordially invite you to be there!
In the iDESkmu project (including document management systems and enterprise content management systems in medium-sized companies; website www.projekt-ideskmu.de) we want to promote the availability of barrier-free software and raise awareness of its necessity.
An important milestone for this goal is to make the creation and testing of barrier-free software as easy as possible, even for people without expert knowledge. To this end, the University of Siegen and the project partners organized a design workshop in October and discussed with the future target groups what is necessary to simplify accessibility tests. (more…)
Welcome to the new semester at the University of Siegen!
Last week at the Meet & Greet our colleagues and we, the research group “Business Informatics, especially IT for the Aging Society” introduced ourselves. We not only talked about ourselves, but also about our projects and the teaching offered.
As requested by you, we are happy to provide you with the presentation and the information it contains
The development of self-applicable and easily understandable test criteria is an important milestone in raising awareness for accessible software. One of the aims of the iDESkmu project (including document management systems and enterprise content management systems in medium-sized companies) is to design and develop a test tool for barrier-free software and easy access to test criteria and catalogs.
In order to determine what requirements such a test tool must have in practice, we are looking for representatives (co-researchers) from different groups of actors to jointly define requirements, functionality and “design” of the test tool in a design workshop. We are looking for companies, employees and developers not only from the DMS / ECMS area as well as specialists for accessibility. (more…)
The iDESkmu consortium also consists of the BSV Hamburg e.V., HAVI Solutions GmbH & Co. KG and other experts in the field of accessibility.
One of the aims of this project is to sensitize companies to the advantages of developing and using accessible software and to show how companies, developers and employees with and without (visual) disabilities can benefit from accessible software.
For this project, the University of Siegen is looking for co-researchers in the region and throughout Germany who will support the project with the opportunity to do research with them, examine working practices and conduct interviews through to completion, as well as continuous exchange and independent research.
The consortium is supported by a company from the region that raises awareness and tests software for accessibility: bitfarm Archiv GmbH
Together with Heino Schneider, managing director of bitfarm, the project team has already carried out field research at and with the company, the analysis of which has provided valuable insights for the project and its further course. Thanks for that!
It is gratifying to see that there are already companies in the region who have thought about the issue of accessibility or will do so now.
If you would like to know more or support us with the project, please do not hesitate to contact us
Prof. Dr. Claudia Müller will take part in the virtual expert exchange on the topic “Socially just transition towards sustainable development: The role of digital technologies on social development and well-being of all” from August 4 to 8, 2020, at the invitation of Daniela Bas, Director of the Division for Inclusive Social Development of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. She represents the topics “Ageing & Digitisation” as deputy chairperson of the 8th Ageing Report Commission of the Federal Government as well as “Participation-oriented and sustainable technology design”.
Richard Paluch, research associate in the research area of Business Informatics, in particular IT for the Aging Society, was selected by the German Society of Audiology (DGA) for the Publication Prize 2019. He will be awarded the prize during the online conference on September 3, 2020.
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